How Carrie Fisher’s Mother Debbie Reynolds Died Just One Day After Losing Her

Carrie Fisher was born on October 21, 1956, to two of the most famous people in America. Today, October 21, 2026, she would have turned 70. She was the daughter of Singin’ in the Rain star Debbie Reynolds and crooner Eddie Fisher, and she grew up to become Princess Leia for millions of moviegoers.

Her life ended far too soon, at 60, in December 2016. What happened in the hours after her death became one of the most heartbreaking stories Hollywood has ever told. Her mother was gone barely a day later. The family has since explained what Debbie said in her final hours, and why her son refuses to call it a broken heart.

What Happened On Carrie Fisher’s Flight From London?

On December 23, 2016, Fisher was flying home from London on United Airlines Flight 935. According to the Associated Press, the crew reported that a passenger was “unresponsive” before the plane landed in Los Angeles. Paramedics met the flight at LAX and rushed her to a nearby hospital.

Her brother, Todd Fisher, told reporters she was in intensive care. She never recovered. Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016, at age 60.

Her death certificate first listed “cardiac arrest/deferred.” In June 2017, the Los Angeles County coroner released its findings. As NME and Fox reported, the cause was given as “sleep apnea and other undetermined factors.” The manner of death was ruled undetermined. Her daughter, Billie Lourd, then 24, spoke openly about her mother’s lifelong battle with addiction and mental illness. She said her mother would want her death to encourage people to be open about their struggles.

The family had only begun to plan a farewell when the second call came. To understand why it hit so hard, you have to know how far Carrie and Debbie had traveled to reach each other.

Why Did Carrie And Debbie Stop Speaking For A Decade?

Their bond was never simple. Eddie Fisher left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor when Carrie was a toddler, a scandal Debbie’s granddaughter Billie Lourd still hears about as family lore. Carrie grew up sharing her mother with an adoring public. “I didn’t like sharing her,” she wrote in her memoir Wishful Drinking.

In her 20s and 30s, the two were badly estranged. “She didn’t talk to me for probably 10 years,” Reynolds told Oprah Winfrey in 2011, according to Biography. On the same broadcast she added, “All I could do is love her and always shall.”

Carrie turned that tension into art. Her 1987 novel Postcards from the Edge followed an actress daughter and her actress mother. It became a 1990 film with Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, and Fisher wrote the screenplay herself. She insisted the book was fiction. Readers assumed otherwise.

Slowly, the pair found their way back. In 2000, Reynolds bought the house next door to her daughter’s, and they shared a driveway for the rest of their lives. Carrie even wrote the 2001 TV movie These Old Broads as a vehicle for her mother. “I just admire my mother very much,” she told NPR in 2016, as Good Morning America later recounted.

That closeness is part of why the next morning’s news landed so hard. First, though, it’s worth remembering how much Carrie built on her own.

How Much Did Carrie Fisher Do Beyond Princess Leia?

Fisher made her film debut in Shampoo in 1975, opposite Warren Beatty. Two years later came Star Wars, and a 20-year-old Fisher became Princess Leia Organa. She played the role through The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Behind the scenes, she became one of Hollywood’s most trusted script doctors. From 1991 to 2005 she quietly polished dialogue on films that included Steven Spielberg’s Hook and Whoopi Goldberg’s Sister Act. Her name never appeared in the credits.

Her one-woman show Wishful Drinking premiered in 2006 and became a bestselling memoir in 2008. Her final book, The Princess Diarist, arrived in November 2016, just weeks before she died. The audiobook earned her a posthumous Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in 2018. On May 4, 2023, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Her last turn as Leia, in The Last Jedi, opened in December 2017 and was dedicated to her memory. By then, her mother had been gone for almost a year.

What Did Debbie Reynolds Say Before She Was Gone?

On December 28, 2016, one day after Carrie died, Reynolds was at Todd’s home in Beverly Hills. The family was making plans for Carrie’s funeral. That afternoon, she suffered a stroke and was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She died there that day at age 84.

Her death certificate, obtained by the Associated Press, listed an intracerebral hemorrhage. High blood pressure was named as an underlying cause.

Todd later shared what his mother had told him shortly before the stroke. According to the Associated Press and Variety, Reynolds said, “I want to be with Carrie.” Days later, he told ABC’s 20/20 that the popular explanation was wrong. “She didn’t die of a broken heart,” he said, as Nylon reported. “She just left to be with Carrie.”

He went further in his 2018 memoir, My Girls: A Lifetime With Carrie and Debbie. According to Fox News, he wrote that his mother “willed herself right off this planet to personally see to it that Carrie would never be alone.”

Mother and daughter were laid to rest together on January 6, 2017, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Part of Carrie’s ashes was placed beside her mother. Todd and Billie kept the rest in a porcelain urn shaped like a giant Prozac pill, a novelty piece Carrie had owned for years. “Carrie would like that, it was her favourite thing,” Todd told reporters.

The very next night, January 7, 2017, HBO aired Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. The documentary had premiered at the Cannes Film Festival the previous May, with both women still alive to see it. It turned out to be Debbie Reynolds’ final film performance. Viewers who tuned in saw the two of them together on screen one last time, a day after they were laid to rest together.